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"What about the other servants?"

"It was near Christmas, and all had been sent to visit their arments the mare had left unscathed and found we had but a arb a hundred h lord due in less than an hour to inspect the garrison"

"Laundering what you were already wearing would have taken at least another day," she guessed

"It would, had any of us kno to use the bloody reed "Which, of course, none of us did"

Si dileo to your esture "Sooner I would have fallen on a copper-clad sword No, what I did was order the men to bathe their faces and then don full aruard, he asked me why they appeared prepared to march into battle I told him that I had decided to conduct surprise readiness drills" He waited a beat "For the entire week"

Shocked, she caught her breath "You lied"

"I saw to it that the ht for the next week, half the garrison ran drills in full armor," he told her, "while the other half beca seams Never have needle and thread been so repeatedly, continually cursed"

His laugh invited Siht in her throat felt like a sob All at once there was too much of hih her defenses and was only a heartbeat away fro her soul No one, not her father, not even the sisters, had made her feel so open, so vulnerable

And then her father’s voice, as soft as a caress, snaked out of her hter?

She would not do this, not in his presence A sign for a rest area appeared and she quicklyshe could

"I ed to say, and had the Land Rover parked and the engine switched off a moment later

"I will acco at him she pushed open the door and climbed out "I will return shortly"

She did not run until she was out of his sight, and she made it as far as a sink in the women’s restroom, where she doubled over and vo she turned on the tap, and then braced herself with her hands as she brought up the rest

Finally the nausea receded and she could breathe again She splashed her face and rinsed out herthe water until the sink cleared before she looked into the mirror, and then wearily rubbed at her pale cheeks until so feeds

"I a" The words cale tear that welled on the edge of her lashes She used the heel of her hand to dash it away

So toward the restroohten She dried her face and hts, and co, she would blame it on Sister Paulette’s too-sour preserves, and tell hiain This tih her without stirring her feelings orout, Silanced across at the h the air at her ear, and she ducked as the hard, short object connected with her head Although a glancing blow, it threw her off balance, her shoulder sla into the concrete wall as a hand clamped onto her shoulder and an arm raised a lead-filled sap above her face

With no tie, hunching over and rolling into his knees Before he could adjust his stance, she hooked her ars out fro his fall with a rigid arm She heard his wrist bones snap as she flipped forward, her head tucked low, and landed two feet away, pivoting as she straightened

Halfway to his feet, the ainst his chest and kept his da out on the space between his reddened nose and whitened lips as he ap between them and slowly reached down to slip a knife from his boot

Simone mirrored his movements as she assessed him His dark blue knit pullover and loose black trousers had been chosen to allow freedohtly as hemotions with the blade in an attempt to distract her His flat eyes, however, never wavered from hers

Simone had no doubt he had been sent to kill her If he had chosen to strictly obey his orders, he would have first come at her with the knife But he’d chosen to use the sap first in order to knock her unconscious, the hallmark of a rapist and torturer